Reciprocating binder with sliding side shaper for forming asymmetrical sections



Apnl 12, 1960 F. R. BENEDICT ETAL 2,932,337

RECIPROCATING BINDER WITH SLIDING SIDE SHAPER FOR FORMING ASYMMETRICAL SECTIONS Filed Jan. 30, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Aprll 12, 1960 F. R. BENEDICT ETAl- 2,932,337

RECIPROCATING BINDER WITH SLIDING SIDE SHAPER 1 FOR FORMING ASYMMETRICAL SECTIONS Filed Jan. 30, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ELECTRIC SOURCE RECIPROCATING BINDER WITH SLIDING SIDE SHAPER FOR FORMING ASYIVIMETRICAL SEC- TIONS Frank R. Benedict,

Stoughton, Mass., Corporation, Pennsylvania Application January 30, 1956, Serial No. 562,309 3 Claims. (Cl. 153-34) Braintree, and Anthony F. Utakis, assignors to Westinghouse Electric East Pittsburgh, Pa., a' corporation of desirable to place stream-lining fairings aroundequipment which is placed in an air stream. .An example is a fan belt for driving an axial flow fan, such a belt extending into the air stream moved by the fan. It is customary to place a stream-lining fairing around both passes of such a belt. .Such a fairing is usually formed from a pair of partial air foil sections, each having tabs for clamping it to a collar connecting the two sections. Such sections are now made in die sets or are formed on press brakes. Die set forming results in high tool cost, and press brake operation results in high labor cost and poor accuracy of form. Fairings made by using this invention are formed accurately ina single operation with low tool and labor cost.

Objects of this invention are to reduce the cost of production of, and to improve the quality of, streamlined fairings.

This invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings, of which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a machine embodying thisinvention, at the start of a forming operation.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 except the machine is shown at near the end of a forming operation;

Fig. 3 is a view of a mandrel that can be used in the machine;

Fig. 4 is a view of another mandrel that can be used;

Fig. 5 is an isometric view of a fairing formed by the machine; and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view showing a pair of fairings assembled on a collar as used for enclosing the two passes of a fan belt.

Referring now to the annexed drawings, an air or hydraulic press 10 has a piston rod 11, to which is attached a plate 12 having a mandrel support 13 extending therebelow. A mandrel 14 has driving pins 19 journalled in the lower end of the support 13, and has a bar 15 extending vertically above the pins 19 and fixedly attached thereto.

Spaced below the mandrel 14 is a pair of rolls 16 rotatably attached to the inner ends of piston rods 17 of air or hydraulic cylinders 18, the rolls and cylinders being horizontally opposed. The outer ends of the cylinders 18 are connected through tubing 20- and valve 21 to a conventional source 22 of fluid under pressure. The inner end of the left cylinder 18 is connected through tubing 23 to the valve 21, and the innerend of the right cylinder 18 is connected through tubing 24, valve 25 and tubing 26 to the valve 21.

The valve is a two-way valve, and is operated by a solenoid 27. When the solenoid is energized as will be described later, the valve 21 is adjusted to admit fluid from the source 22 into the tubing connected to the inner ends of the cylinders 18 for causing the pistons of the cylinders 18 to retract the rolls 16. When the solenoid is plied through the tubing 24 to the inner end of the right cylinder 18.

Spaced below the rolls 16 is a pair of stop-rolls 30 which are journalled in supports 31 attached to the tops of cylinders 32 which are slidably fitted within slightly larger diameter cylinders 33.

Coiled springs 34 extend between the closed lower ends of the cylinders 33 and the closed upper ends of the cylinders 32 and resist the down movement of the cyliners 32. A pair of rods 35 interconnect the supports 31 for causing the stop-rolls 30 to move together.

One of the cylinders 32 has a contact support 36 of electric insulation to the underside of which is attached an electric contact 37. The corresponding cylinder 33 has a similar contact support 38 to the upper side of which is attached an electric contact 39. The contacts 37 and 39 are connected in series with an electric source 40 and the energizing winding of the solenoid 27.

The mandrel used can be asolid one as shown by Fig. 3 or can be made up of aligned spaced-apart mandrel sections 14A as shown by Fig. 4, the sections 14A being interconnected by rods 42.

Operation In operation, a heated blank 44 of sheet metal cut to the proper dimensions, is placed between the mandrel 14 and the rolls 16 with the latter in their inner position as shown in Fig. l. The mandrel is lined up so that the plane including the axes of the rolls 16 is parallel to the plane of the chord of the mandrel. Pressure is then ap plied from a source which is not illustrated to the press cylinder 10, causing it to force the mandrel downwardly. The mandrel drive is pressurized so that a constant drive pressure is obtained over its entire drive stroke.

The rolls 16 are moved apart by the pistons in the cylinders while'the blank 44 is advanced therebetween sufliciently to cause the blank to follow the contour of the portion of the mandrel 14 below its flat, horizontally extending, upper surface. When the operation has proceeded until the blank has been deformed to the position shown by the solid lines of Fig. 2, with the tab ends 46 of the blank extending vertically upward, the cylinders 32 will have been moved downwardly by the pressure of the blank 44 against the stop-rolls 30, to cause the contacts 37 and 39 to touch, and to close the energizing circuit of the solenoid 27. The stop-rolls 30 maintain the blank in its deformed position around the lower portions of the mandrel at this time and during the next steps of the operation.

When the solenoid 27 is energized, it adjusts the valve 21 to close ofl the supply of fluid from the source 22 through the tubing 23 and 24 to the inner ends of the cylinders 18, and to supply fluid through the tubing 20 to the outer ends of the cylinders 18 causing the rolls 16 to be moved towards each other so as to push the tab ends 46 of the blank inwardly against the flat upper surface of the mandrel as shown by the dotted lines of Fig. 2. The blank now has the desired shape shown by Fig. 5. The rolls 16 are now retracted, and the mandrel is moved back to its starting position, and the formed fairing is slipped off.

During the first step of the operation in which the blank is deformed around the lower portion of the mandrel, the rolls 16 are moved apart at such a rate that the Patented Apr. 12,1960;

chord plane of the mandrel will remain level as the mandrel and the blank thereon passes between the rolls 16. This requires a constant drive on one roll 16 and a controlled drive rate on the other roll 16. The controlled drive rate is obtained from the mandrel level control bar 15 which adjusts the valve 25 to admit more or less fluid to ther ight cylinder 18 to increase or decrease respectively, the drive rate on the right roll 16 of the chord plane if the mandrel is out of level as it passes down between the rolls 16. Since the mandrel has an irregular shaped bottom, if the rolls were not so individually controlled, much more pressure would be exerted by the press on the roll opposite the lowest surface of the mandrel than on the other roll.

Fig. 6 illustrates one application of the fairing of Fig. 5. The tabs 46 of two fairings 44 are clipped over flanges on the ends of a collar 50 which also may be streamlined, and enclose the two passes of a belt 51 used for driving an axial flow blower from an electric motor spaced from the blower.

While one embodiment of this invention has been described for the purpose of illustration, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact apparatus and arrangement of apparatus illustrated and described since modifications thereof may be suggested by those'skilled in the art without departure from the essence of the invention.

What we claim as our invention, is:

1. A machine for forming stream-lining fairings from flat metal blanks, comprising a mandrel having a contour shaped on one side to comply with the contour of a fairing to be formed, a pair of aligned rolls spaced from said mandrel a distance suflicient for a flat blank from which a fairing is to be. formed to be placed between said mandrel and said rolls, means for advancing said side of said mandrel towards said rolls, first power means for simultaneously retracting said rolls for permitting said mandrel and a blank deformed thereby to pass between said rolls while maintaining said rolls in contact with the blank, second power means for simultaneously advancing said rolls towards each other, means on the opposite sides of said rolls from said mandrel positioned to be contacted by the blank, means for resiliently urging said last mentioned means towards, said first mentioned rolls, and means actuated by a predetermined movement of said last mentioned means in a direc tion away from said first mentioned rolls for turningofi said first power means and turning on said second power means.

'2. The invention claimed in claim 1 in which said mandrel is pivoted between its ends and its contoured side is asymmetrical with respect to its pivot, and in which means is provided responsive to the movement of said mandrel about its pivot for adjusting said first power means to retract one of said first mentioned rolls faster than the other of said first mentioned rolls is retracted.

3. A machine for forming streamlining fairings from 9 flat metal blanks, comprising a mandrel having a contour shaped on one side to conform with the contour of a fairing to be formed, a pair of aligned rolls spaced from said side of said mandrel a distance suificient for a flat blank to be placed between said mandrel and said rolls, means for advancing said side of said mandrel towards said rolls, the contour of said mandrel side being asymmetrical about its pivot, means for pivotedly supporting-said mandrel between its ends, power means for simultaneously retracting said rolls for permitting said mandrel and a blank deformed thereby to pass between said rolls while maintaining said rolls in contact with the blank, and means including means between the pivot of said mandrel and one of its ends and responsive to the movement of said mandrel about said pivot for adjusting said power means to cause one of said rolls to be retracted faster than the other of said rolls is retracted.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,418,100 Stewart Mar. 25, 1947 2,591,085 McCall Apr. 1, 1952 2,807,936 Moore et al. Oct. 1, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 83,719 Switzerland June 21, 1919 297,233 Italy June 7, 1932 

